ST. LOUIS -- Andy Benes returned Friday to the St. Louis Cardinals, the team he said he never wanted to leave.

"I'm thrilled to death to be coming back," said Benes, who agreed to an $18 million, three-year free-agent contract. "I really felt in my heart St. Louis is the place I want to be. The last couple years I've had on a different color uniform, but my heart was in St. Louis."

	Benes

Benes was 18-10 on the Cardinals' NL Central championship team in 1996. He left as a free agent after 1997 for the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks when general manager Walt Jocketty and Benes' agent, Scott Boras, agreed to a five-year deal about 1½ hours after the Dec. 7 deadline for players to re-sign. The contract was rejected by the commissioner's office.

"Pride and money got in the way," Benes said. "I wanted to really throw that out of the equation. I feel like I have my best years ahead of me."

Benes, 32, was 13-12 with a 4.81 ERA in 198 1-3 innings last year with Arizona and won six of his last seven decisions. He filed for free agency after the season, exercising an option that allowed him out of the final year of a contract that would have paid him $6 million.

He was left out of the Diamondbacks' playoff rotation in favor of Brian Anderson and didn't pitch an inning as Arizona was eliminated in four games by the New York Mets.

His new deal calls for a $2 million signing bonus to be paid in installments from 2003-2010, $2.5 million in salary this year and $6 million each of the next two seasons. The contract has a $6 million mutual option for 2002.

In addition, he can make $500,000 a year in performance bonuses if he has 34 starts and 230 innings.

"We had to be very creative in how we put this deal together because of where we were at with our budget," Jocketty said. "There were concessions on both sides."

Another plus for Benes: He still owns a house in St. Louis.

"I can't tell you what it means to know that I'm going to be back at a place where I've had success, I'm comfortable, and the fans treated me so well," Benes said. "I'm kind of numb. It doesn't seem like this is real."

Benes has a career record of 131-119 with a 4.13 ERA. He was the No. 1 starter on the Cardinals' '96 team, but could be as low as the No. 4 man this time around on a beefed-up staff that includes offseason acquisition Darryl Kile and Pat Hentgen.

The top starter last year was surprise 18-game winner Kent Bottenfield.

Benes' younger brother, Alan, also is expected to return after missing more than two years with shoulder injuries. Alan Benes had a pair of one-inning relief stints last September.

The Cardinals also restructured the remainder of Kile's contract. Kile had one season remaining on his contract at $8 million, but under the new deal his salary is cut to $6 million. The team added a $6 million option for 2001 with a $2 million buyout.

The option price would increase to $7 million if he has 34 starts or 225 innings this year and to $8 million if he has 35 starts or 245 innings.

In addition, he can make $150,000 a year in performance bonuses: $25,000 each for 180 and 200 innings, and $50,000 each for 220 and 250 innings.

For 2000 only, the Cardinals gave Kile the right to block trades to six teams: Anaheim, Boston, the Chicago White Sox, the New York Mets and Yankees and San Francisco.

Kile, a 31-year-old right-hander, was 19-7 with a 2.57 ERA with Houston in 1997, but struggled in Colorado, going 8-13 with a 6.61 ERA last year.

The Cardinals also agreed to one-year contracts with third baseman Craig Paquette ($595,000), left-hander Paul Spoljaric ($550,000) and right-hander Mark Thompson ($400,000).

Paquette hit .287 with 10 homers and 37 RBIs last year. Spoljaric, acquired from Toronto on Nov. 11 along with Hentgen, was 2-2 with a 4.65 ERA in two starts and 35 relief appearances.

Thompson was 1-3 with a 2.76 ERA in five starts after he was brought up from the minors on Sept. 1. Spoljaric made $450,000 last season, while Thompson made $350,000 and Paquette $300,000.